2020 Ongoing MOTY List: WALTER vs. SAXON

36. Saxon Huxley vs. WALTER NXT UK 9/24

ER: I've slowed down on the project, but it still amazes me how far I've made it into my NXT UK Guide. Before starting this pointless endeavor, I never would have thought of writing a sentence like "This was the best Saxon Huxley match I've ever seen", but this was the best Saxon Huxley match we've seen (so far?). Huxley, Jinny, and Tyson T-Bone are the three NXT UK workers who I think could have really good matches but are rarely put in a position to have really good matches. They're the best, most underutilized wrestlers in the fed, and this felt like the first time in ages that any of them had been used for something cool. They've made mistakes in the past comparing Huxley to Bruiser Brody, but his whole thing works a lot better if you just think of him as the drummer from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Here he's a madman who starts stiffing WALTER before WALTER even has a chance to start in, actually makes it work for far longer than you'd think, before WALTER takes over and punishes him far longer and with way more pettiness than you'd normally see in a show opening Non-Title Match.

 

I didn't know the match would evolve into what it did, but I really started paying attention when Huxley started throwing elbowdrops that were essentially him jumping onto WALTER as hard as he could, like Dennis Rodman's elbows to The Giant, where Rodman was just jumping onto top of him full weight. He was really good at flustering WALTER, sticking and moving with his running kicks, eating a shot if it meant he could land a couple, and when they fought to the floor I thought it was cool that he opted to break the count when it was possible he could have won by count out. He would live to regret that decision, as it pretty much leads directly to his murder. He misses one of those running kicks over the barricade, and it's all over for him. WALTER goes into kill mode and it's the best, slamming Huxley as hard as possible on the floor and kicking him wickedly across the back, which was already welting as he's tossed back first lengthwise across the barricade and then powerbombed off the hardest edge of the apron. WALTER just lined him up with the full edge of the apron and powerbomb him off the peak. 

The match is over for Huxley after that apron powerbomb, but I loved how the match itself wasn't actually over. Huxley made it back in on the 8 count, and we got to see that WALTER was totally fine winning the match in the way that Huxley had foolishly guilted into not wanting, perfectly content to take the count out that Huxley that beneath him. The rest of this match is WALTER having a loud empty arena fireworks match, teeing off on a too weak opponent and making loud echoing sound with every string. Huge chops thrown as hard as possible, Huxley trying to respond by cupping WALTER's ears on slaps, but no match for a big man hitting him as hard as possible. WALTER's top rope butterfly suplex sends Huxley past the middle of the ring, and before taking the win WALTER is doing mean shit like just slapping Huxley on the back as hard as he can and falling on him. It's great. This was WALTER's return to TV after tapings resumed during the pandemic, and he played this like a true Diva taking advantage of some perfect bathroom acoustics. 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Dar vs. Dragunov

25. Noam Dar vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 9/17/20

ER: This was the first new episode of NXT UK after the pandemic hiatus, and they gave us a cool main event match that had never happened anywhere else before. This comeback episode gave us a little bit of insight into how members of the UK roster spent their time during the pandemic: Amir Jordan somehow fixed his entire hairline (I've seen those NXT UK contracts and I have no idea where this guy got the money to do so), Aoife Valkyrie suddenly works stiff, and Noam Dar just came up with more ways to hit hard while continuing to put his head directly into the path of every dangerous strike. This was a great reintroduction of all the cool things Noam Dar is capable of, and a great look at just how much spittle Ilja can blow out of his mouth. 

Dar is outsized by Dragunov but hits so hard and with such precision that his offense actually makes Ilja's selling and overacting look like a perfectly normal reaction. Dar kicks at Ilja's hamstring, stomps his foot, kicks him as hard as possible in the shin, kicks him as hard as possible in the chest, stomps the hell out of his wrists and ankles, snapmares the backs of his knees into the ropes, and rubs his wrist tape across Ilja's stupid contacts. Dar is such a profoundly annoying little man and those annoyances only glow hotter when he is backing up all of his snotty behavior with real damage. Noam Dar feels like a spoiled coach's son who actually deserves all the playing time he gets, possibly the only coach's son since Cal Ripken to actually deserve his playing time. 

Dar learned the downward strike elbow over the pandemic and integrates it all through the match: as a standing strike, as a grounded strike, as a strike while working a hold, and as a way to advance a hold. He's relentless, which is the best kind of Ilja opponent, as Ilja will never quit and never stop making stupid faces. The more people stand outside of Ilja's house yelling at him to stop making stupid faces, the stupider the faces will get, and the stupider the faces get the more we get to see Dar get socked. Dar staggers into position so well for all of Ilja's elbows and leaping kicks and clotheslines, just putting his head in harms way for all of them. The man leans his head into every attack and it is insane. 

Dar is so good at getting into position for offense, that it's so much more gratifying when he shuts down bullshit. He gets plastered with Dragunov's rope spin lariat, but the next time Ilja tries it he takes a running boot right underneath the sternum, and a follow-up running kick that sends him flying 6 feet off the apron. The run to the finish blew up with a great strike exchange, each with one hand tied up in a knucklelock, sick elbows and kicks thrown from zero distance. Neither man was leaning away or holding back and it came off hard. This needed a finish better than Alexander Wolfe coming out and just kind of getting in the way, but that was the only thing holding this back. 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: A-Kid vs. Dragunov

31. A-Kid vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 4/30/20)

ER: This was a tale of two matches, and I liked the first part of the match more than the second part, but still thought the second part had some high peaks and real strengths, including a really hot finish. It's crazy that this was a match that was only shown due to a worldwide pandemic that temporarily halted NXT UK tapings. Imagine not finding room for this match on literally any episode NXT UK. This match is better than 90% of the NXT UK matches we've gotten, and it took a pandemic to get it. 

The matwork was all snug and went in cool directions, fighting out of headscissors and then finding cool ways to get back in those headscissors. Dragunov holds his tight and made a couple of Kid's escapes look even greater, Kid wriggling out and smoothly slipping into a leg grapevine, into a bow and arrow. My favorite part of the match was Kid rolling through a wristlock into a handstand and swinging his legs back around to lock Dragunov into another headscissors. It was the kind of mat trick that could have looked clunky and ridiculous, but the way Kid pulled it off it made it look plausible. Other favorite moments? Every Dragunov clothesline, all thrown with massive impact and follow through. 

Dragunov is a guy who can and does hit insanely hard, while also looking like a first class goof through every step of those ungodly hits. He has offense I don't like - there was a cartwheel crossbody here that not only looked bad, but felt entirely out of place in the match - but he always balances it out with some deadly stuff. I liked his standing elbow from the top to the floor, a nice German suplex, and that pair of hard lariats any wrestler would be lucky to call their finisher. The second lariat especially, right down the final stretch, with Ilja recoiling off the ropes and spinning into a perfectly timed smash, could have believably sent A-Kid to another territory for 6 months. I liked how Kid tried to get things back to the mat once Dragunov started throwing bombs, viewing it as his best path to the win and finding that it's tough to put the Dragunov genie back in the bottle. 

I didn't love some of the sections that turned into "I kick your face, you spin around and hit a jumping kick to my face, which bounces me back into a..." sequences, but I will always like Dragunov kicking guys in the chin, throwing the stiffest possible downward elbow smashes, and trying to take a man's head off with a lariat. Dragunov flew in so hot with Torpedo Moscow that he could have knocked himself out. I thought this was A-Kid's best match in NXT UK, and at the same time you had another Dragunov match where he shows that he's willing to kill himself to win. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Devlin vs. Banks

Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 3/26/20) (Ep. #85)

ER: Jordan Devlin is really good at getting matches I like out of people that I don't like (for their wrestling style or because they're a nonce), often while working a style that I don't even like. He's one of the few guys who you could make the case for being the best wrestler in NXT UK, and I really love the ways he integrates his ideas into a match. In his longer matches he tends to throw in some "cute" exchanges that would surely annoy if done by a lesser performer, but he and Noam Dar have a way of getting cute with their opponents that actually manages to add to a match. Banks is a nonce and I'm not a huge fan of his in-ring, but he's shown himself to be a very good opponent for all of my favorite wrestlers. His matches against Devlin, Dar, Alexander Wolfe, Kassius Ohno, and Brian Kendrick are among my very favorite matches through 85 episodes of NXT UK. I don't think anyone else on the roster has had the level of matches Banks had with those guys, so even if I argue that he was "carried" to those good matches, there have been several other guys who all had matches against those guys and the Banks matches were just overall better. This is basically his last match in WWE, I doubt I'll be writing about any of his matches in the future, so here's me doing a "gotta hand it to" a guy who sucks: Travis Banks, you had better matches against great wrestlers than a lot of other people. 

I loved how Devlin went after Banks and I loved the way both bumped. Devlin always throws in a couple neat tricks, and I loved how Banks got him to faceplant on a dropdown, just rolled right into his ankles and sent Devlin face and shoulder first into the mat. Banks had done some work on Devlin's shoulder and Devlin fell on that shoulder and kept acknowledging it, all through controlling Banks he would roll his shoulder and flex his arm, smiling while enacting revenge. That all happened when Devlin rolled to the floor to escape but Banks came after with a tope. Devlin sidestepped that tope and Banks had one of the more spectacular crash landings I've seen. Banks went upside down, head and shoulder first into that barricade, a crash landing that Darby Allin would want to study just to see how to make it even crazier. As Banks is crashed on the floor, Devlin does one armed pushups in the ring and I love it. Devlin looked good in control, working over Banks with stiff strikes and setting up good comebacks. Devlin's reversals all look really good, and he rarely looks like the type of modern wrestlers I hate, who work every move around a reversal. Devlin's reversals always fit into the match and actually play like a reaction, not like a dance step. 

When Devlin catches knees on a moonsault, Banks goes on an awesome comeback tear. The corner cannonball has become a pretty worn out spot, but Banks hits one with his whole damn ass behind it. A lot of cannonballs have become late somersaults rolling up your opponent instead of into your opponent, and Banks jumps into this one like Jordan from the free throw line, really hitting Devlin like a cannonball. Banks also hits a tope that I didn't even think Devlin would be recovered enough in time to catch, as Devlin bumps out through the ropes and as he's bumping Banks is already getting a head of steam, and by the time the camera cuts back to Devlin he's getting wiped out by the tope. I mentioned "cute" spots, and one of those was a headbutt exchange that I've never seen before, and probably don't want to see much again: Banks hits a headbutt that staggers both, and Devlin winds up falling forward with his own headbutt as both are going down. It sounds complicated, it sounds silly, but I really liked how it came off. If it started turning up in every match like a finger break, it would become one of my least favorite spots, but that's the magic of Devlin, taking an annoying idea on paper and actually making it look good. This had several convincing nearfalls, strike exchanges that didn't fall into obnoxious patterns, and some real crazy spots. It was worked like a big main event and it felt like a big main event. 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Imperium vs. Carter/Smith

67. Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Oliver Carter/Ashton Smith NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 3/26/20)

ER: Marcel Barthel is someone I wished showed up on TV far more often, and if more people saw performances like this it would certainly get others to agree. This was a good tag that built to some nice near falls and close calls, gave us a couple different unexpected outcomes on familiar moments, and played as a great showcase for Martel in particular. but also the impeccable timing of Aichner. It starts with Barthel grounding Carter and crossing his ankles in an Indian deathlock, and I loved how Barthel kept finding ways to keep a lock on Carter's ankles while Carter kept trying to shake him. Carter is a flier and I liked how Imperium kept trying to prevent him from leaving his feet, making it mean a little bit more when he was able to pull off stuff like his backdrop splash (with Carter rolling onto Smith's back on the apron and then getting a boost flipping back from the apron into the ring). 

Barthel took three big bumps to the floor during the match, taking a fast flipping bump after getting juked by Carter, and later getting shoved off the top rope by Smith while setting up a European Bomb. Barthel brought speed and meanness and Aichner was more of a cudgel, and they show how fun simply cutting Carter off from Smith can be. I really like Imperium's double corner dropkick, with Aichner tying up Carter in the ropes and flipping him upside down, both of Imperium flying in from opposite corners. We knew it was all building to Smith coming in and wrecking them, and I liked little twists on the familiar, like when Aichner was working over Carter and turned to cheapshot Smith on the apron, except Smith saw it coming and socked Aichner first. That's a cool way to set up a hot tag, much more unique than two guys slow crawling to their corners at the same time while one looks over their shoulder. Carter's rana reversal as Aichner was setting up the European Bomb was done really well, an excellent nearfall. With Barthel getting shoved to the floor and the way Carter hooked that pin deep made me certain that was the upset finish. Carter was really good at making the most out of those spots, and that kind of thing sets a TV tag like this apart, even when he got planted by that European Bomb just a few moments later.

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams

Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 3/19/20)

ER: I wish we were still getting one match every couple weeks that is just Kassius Ohno working as territory champ Flair, making every local 160 pounder look like they have a shot at beating him. And sometimes they beat him! Not only does Ohno break out a new trick in every single one of his NXT UK matches, he does it  with such confidence and logic that it really makes for a perfect 7 minute match. Ohno has an honest approach to a match - very much like Finlay in WCW or WWE - where he sells and bumps appropriately for the offense actually being performed, and seems to have fun coming up with opponent-specific counters. If an opponent's move doesn't hit flush, he doesn't sell the move as if it landed the way it was supposed to land. It forces his opponent to work honest knowing that Ohno will be giving no quarter. It cannot be an accident that Ohno was the guy in the ring when several very different NXT UK wrestlers had their best match. 

Kenny Williams is a hit or miss NXT UK guy, who has been at his best when against NXT UK's best. He's had several really good matches, but all of them have come against Ohno, Noam Dar, and Jordan Devlin, the literal three best wrestlers in NXT UK. Still, there are plenty of guys on the roster who haven't had matches this good against those three, so some of the credit has to be given to Williams. This match has a lot of ideas that get taken interesting directions. I expected it to be Williams relying on quickness to stay a step ahead of Ohno, but instead it was Ohno pushing pace and Williams struggling to catch up. Williams would get away with a rolling prawn or a headscissors but Ohno was catching him easily. I think Williams did a good job of upping his strikes just to survive. He had a couple elbows that landed hard, and Ohno reacted appropriately.  

Ohno was smart about creating plausible openings, like when he catches a springboard crossbody, tosses Williams up into a fireman's carry, and then nearly loses the match when Williams rolls through into a tight crucifix pin. Ohno breaks out a neat trick to block a second Williams springboard, as instead of trying to knock Williams off the apron he just waits until Williams grabs the ropes to spring, and grinds his boot squarely into Williams' hand to hold him in place. I mentioned appropriate-to-the-offense selling, and I thought Ohno did a great job with that as Williams started hitting big flying offense. There's a tope that's enough to knock Ohno into the barricade, a tope that lands a bit more flush into the aisle, a great Coffin Drop off the middle buckle to the floor, and a missile dropkick back in the ring. Ohno goes down for the Coffin Drop, but doesn't go down for the missile dropkick because it doesn't hit as hard as a man's weight crashing into you from the buckles to the floor. I love that Finlay mindset of "If you knock me down with a dropkick, then I'll get knocked down by a dropkick", and it makes the shotgun dropkick that *does* knock Ohno down mean a lot more. Ohno, however, breaks out another trick, catching a headscissors before it starts and kicking out Williams' plant arm, then just levels him with a roaring elbow. Ohno clearly could have won after that elbow, but throws on a spiteful Kassius Clutch to presumably punish insolence. What a run. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! WALTER Mastiff! Ligero!

WALTER vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 3/5/20) (Ep. #82) 

ER: I liked this a lot, but also felt they almost showed too much. It's a short match that never quite feels as high stakes as they want it to feel, and moved too quickly for any of the biggest spots to sink in. I keep waiting for these UK bog beasts to have an undeniable banger, but they keep falling short in different ways. Still, I liked a lot of what they did here. The whole match was basically Mastiff throwing every piece of offense he has at WALTER, splatting him all around the ring. Mastiff has several pieces of really cool offense and while he did them all, he never made it look easy.  I thought a cool element of the match was how little offense WALTER got. Really, beyond a few big (and nicely timed) chops, a running dropkick, and the big powerbomb finish, this was all about WALTER either gaining an advantage by dodging Mastiff or not dodging and getting squished. 

WALTER went for the powerbomb early and wound up with Mastiff plopped on his chest. He got squished with a cannonball, a cool rolling senton, a regular ol' fat guy senton, and generously threw himself into a German suplex (the suplex really felt like it was 95% WALTER leaping backwards like a crazy man). But the match was also about Mastiff being able to survive as long as he did because of big WALTER misses, like a big missed splash and a sidestepped dropkick. WALTER maximized his cut-offs, always eating a few Mastiff strikes before shutting them down with one big chop or a big boot to the chest. And since Mastiff was throwing several shots to every one WALTER shot, he tired himself throwing out everything he had, misses and all. By the time WALTER hit that powerbomb Mastiff was toast. The strength of the match was WALTER's selling: the way he would curl up or drag himself to the ropes after getting squished, and I love how he fell over after hitting the match ending powerbomb. I have no doubt that WALTER could easily powerbomb Mastiff, but it was one of several things he did that made Mastiff feel like a bigger deal.

Noam Dar vs. Ligero NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 3/12/20) (Ep. #83)

ER: An underrated aspect of NXT UK is that while they don't have a large roster, they don't run a ton of repeat matches. Sure, some of these people have worked each other many times outside of WWE, but I think they really maximize the roster they have. You see repeat matches on Smackdown all the time, week after week, but on NXT UK you can find a match that's been done maybe twice. This is the second Dar/Ligero match (first one happened 8 months prior and was longer, but not as good), and you get that familiarity without feeling like you've seen all of this several times before. I thought Dar was really fantastic in this, acting like a real dick to Ligero and having that paid off in a couple fun ways. The match started with Ligero whiffing on an elbow when Dar just moved back away from it, and Ligero committed to the miss to make the spot look good. It looked more like Ligero was not expecting to miss, which is what all missed shots should look like. Later, when he drilled Dar with a Misawa level elbow, it meant more. Dar has insanely fun body movement, slipping and tripping unexpectedly to throw off Ligero's momentum. Dar kicks Ligero in the legs in several spots you don't normally see targeted, kicking him in the knees to get him to fall on the apron, rolling over to take out Ligero's ankle, always kicking him with this great dismissiveness. Dar rarely if ever falls victim to strike exchange silliness, so the stuff that lands always looks much better in his matches. Really the only weak part of the match was a bad looking Ligero handspring, but the move was reversed so I guess...good? Watch this, and just enjoy how they move around each other. 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Wolfe vs. Banks

29. Alexander Wolfe vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 3/5/20)

ER: Alexander Wolfe is a real beast who is incredibly good at selling and perhaps even better at setting up his opponents' offense. This guy's entire WWE run was as the bottom tier man in two different stables, but goddamn is this guy good. Banks is at his best when he's pushing pace and not slowing things down with strike trading, and he starts this off hot by knocking Wolfe to the floor and then nailing him with a smothering bullet tope, then sticks his boot heels into Wolfe's back with a double stomp (and I dug how Banks went back to that double stomp later in the match). Any match that starts with Wolfe unable to remove his track jacket almost always means you're getting something good, and this is no different. When Wolfe takes over he's really unforgiving, getting Banks to the mat and really pounding on him and roughing him up with headlocks. 

Wolfe is super intense in control, but also great at giving Banks openings and appropriately selling Banks' offense. I don't love some of Banks' strikes, but Wolfe's selling always fits the strike. There is no stupid trading, and Wolfe doesn't automatically do a back bump for each hit. Instead, he staggers and stumbles and falls into place and I'm not sure who else in WWE is this good at filling time waiting to take offense. I've seen so many wrestlers slumped in the corner waiting for a dropkick, and seeing the way Wolfe sets up Banks' corner dropkick should be an eye opener to all of them. Wolfe is good at using Banks' regular offense to set up unique situations, and breaks out some unexpected counters. I loved him hacking at Bank's shins to block a penalty kick, then sweeping those legs to force a Banks faceplant. Wolfe always approaches offense honestly, never waiting for his opponent to do some of the positional work for him. If a guy isn't where he needs him to be, Wolfe will yank them into proper position. The twisting suplex off the apron to the floor looked really nasty, and the in-ring version getting only a two count was a nearfall I really bit on. Wolfe's sitout powerbomb is one of my favorite finishers in wrestling, as it's always so perfectly executed that it hardly seems real. His form, the force he uses, the way he shifts his body to control the pin and leverage, just a perfect understanding of one's offense. A dive into Wolfe's German work is probably long overdue at this point. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Brian Kendrick vs. A-Kid!

Brian Kendrick vs. A-Kid NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/27/20) (#81)

ER: I have a feeling that whenever I get all caught up on NXT UK (which will likely only happen when the program ceases to exist, giving me an actual finite endpoint), I'm going to look back on the days of Ohno and Kendrick's tours as the true salad days of the brand. I don't think that's a contentious statement, and through the first 80 episodes (and a few TakeOvers) there are several regular UK roster members that have become real favorites of mine, far more than I assumed there would be when starting this project. Ohno and Kendrick really felt like they took a lot of the UK regulars out of their comfort zones, but they also have the skills to not just make the UK guys do new styles of match, but a different kind of match really suited to their abilities. 

Kendrick and A-Kid were a cool pairing that I wouldn't have thought to ask for, but I'm glad we got. A-Kid's biggest strength is his fast matwork and quick attacks, and Kendrick is a guy who knows how to do cool things against that and with that. Their fast early exchanges were really good, starting with a hard Kendrick shoulderblock and going through some quick but snug work, A-Kid working Kendrick's arm and Kendrick always finding crafty reversals, and A-Kid surprising him with a slick armdrag and dropkick. Things really pick up when Kendrick starts working a disgusting cravat, locking his knuckles around Kid's windpipe. Kendrick is really great at keeping a thread going through a match, and great at making opponent's offense look meaningful. 

It's always tough to say what my favorite part of any given Kendrick match is, because he's so good at taking familiar spots and making them work slightly different. A great example in this match was when A-Kid grazed Kendrick on a fast tope and spilled deep into the entranceway. It was really light contact and shouldn't have been sold as offense, and Kendrick instinctively notices that. Instead of selling the tope, Kendrick sold the bump he took from the tope and sold pain in his arm and shoulder from earlier. Not many wrestlers have the ability to think on their feet like that, and it's just one thing that makes Kendrick stand above. Kid hits a nice heavy high crossbody, and Kendrick faceplants hard on Kid's La Mistica, really making it look like Kid could come away with his arm. Kendrick is probably the best rope worker on the roster, as he's so great at working submissions around ropes and making distance to the ropes part of the drama in smart ways, and his escapes and struggles to get to the ropes really validate opponent's submissions. The home stretch is hot (but the whole match was worked at this pace, so it was really more a culmination of everything), with Kendrick cruelly leaping from the floor to grab the top rope, knocking Kid crotch first on the top and then hitting a great butterfly suplex. When Kendrick locked in the Captain's Hook (my favorite submission in wrestling) right after, I thought Kid was sunk. Instead, Kid somehow works in a springboard DDT and Kendrick absolutely spikes himself on it. NXT UK improbably became my favorite weekly wrestling show, and it was never better than when Ohno and Kendrick were there.  

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NXT UK Worth Watching : Ohno vs. Starz!

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Starz NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/26/20) 

ER: I watched and wrote about this match a couple years ago without having seen much other NXT UK, I was just seeking out Ohno and Kendrick matches. I had never heard of Jack Starz when I first watched his Ohno match, but that was two years ago and before I had watched over 80 episodes of NXT UK. So now, I have...essentially still zero idea who Jack Starz is. Sometimes he's on NXT UK, most of the time he's not. He shows up, loses quickly, and then comes back 15 episodes later. So of course Kassius Ohno is going to come into town and give Starz his longest match (to this point) in NXT UK. This is only a 5 minute match but it's just about the most complete match you can get in 5 minutes. Ohno is so great at Ric Flairing himself through Yorkshire and making it seem like anyone can beat him, while also demolishing those same people. He is so good at finding plausible ways to be pinned by 170 lb. Brits, and then punishing those Brits for almost beating him. 

I liked the way Starz fought in close with Ohno, tripping Ohno up during his multiple kip ups, foiling him with a wristlock, getting a snug crucifix nearfall, and countering a rolling elbow with a tabletop trip to take Ohno out at the knees. He also wasn't afraid to sneak in uppercuts when he could. I couldn't really tell if Starz had nice uppercuts, but due to the height difference they looked nice as he had a perfect shot under Ohno's chin. But, as many of these NXT UK appearances have gone, you knew that eventually this was going to be about Ohno wrecking some guy. And I like how Ohno almost acted *offended* by getting occasionally outsmarted by Starz, so kept his punishment swift. Starz went for a handstand in the corner, Ohno considered the situation, then just kicks at Starz' hand, keeping his boot there to grind his fingers. Ohno rips at Starz' arm and bends him around by the wrist and fingers, still leaving some openings for Starz to come back, but working quick toward the finish. I loved how Ohno sank in the Kassius Clutch (a trapped arm cravat) and just basically won the match by sheer size. He doesn't make it pretty, he just taps Starz because he can.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! Grizzled Young Vets! Josh Morrell! The Hunt!

Noam Dar vs. Josh Morrell NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/19/20) (Ep. #80)

ER: Noam Dar wrestles like a guy who's not actually signed by NXT UK, but shows up every couple of months just to show that he's better than every single regular in NXT UK. I'm 80 episodes into NXT UK, and the Noam Dar start-stop push through the entire thing has been one of the weirder and more entertaining things of my viewing. Dar shows up for an episode every 6 weeks or so, is always kept strong, always looks great, and then disappears for a couple months and never gets close to any title. My favorite part of the first 80 episodes of this show has been Kassius Ohno, which I don't think is a very contentious opinion. But at this point I think Dar is just as consistent a performer as Ohno. The problem is that for its entire duration, NXT UK has been the easiest place in the WWE brand to hide in plain sight. Noam Dar's last several years have been a tree falling in the woods, a different woods than the one with  Wolfgang's tree. 

This match is a Dar showcase against a very fun wrestler who has an even more ridiculously fragmented appearance rate than himself. Josh Morrell is this hyper athletic guy who shows up once or twice a year to get massacred, and always has new ways of falling on his face or backflipping his way into a bad situation.  He's great as a showcase opponent, and is good at getting himself some shine. I have no idea why he isn't an actual regular as he's always entertaining. Dar bullies Morrell around and Morrell hits back, literally. I loved Dar's slap after going for a knucklelock, and how Morrell went right at him and knew what kind of match it was going to be. Dar hit some of his most painful kicks, and Morrell is a guy who always leans into kicks while making them look painful. Dar had a couple of cool legsweeps too, kicking Morrell out at the shins, and Morrell is good at whipping his face into the mat and holding his loose feeling jaw after. Dar took out Morrell's legs as a way to get to his arm, an attack he kept up until finally getting the win. The balance felt really nice for an extended squash, another argument for Dar as the best Time Management guy on the brand. 

Grizzled Young Vets vs. The Hunt NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/27/20) (#81)

ER: A nice simple match to showcase the Vets, but that doesn't mean the Hunt doesn't get to shine as well. GYV get to work some nice double teams, strong cut offs, and both set up The Hunt's comebacks really nicely. GYV have nice complementary skillsets, and this match saw them both lean into their differences: Drake is the stronger seller, better at taking offense, quick, and tenacious; Gibson is vocal in a way many wrestlers aren't, good at stooging, and good at setting up and executing double teams. I liked the early moments of each Vet saving each other from the apron, leading to them cutting off Boar from Primate. Drake throws a real stiff back elbow, they work a cool tandem kneelift, great tandem backbreaker on the floor, and they just keep hammering down on Boar with splashes, clotheslines, and elbows, refusing to let him tag out. Primate's eventual hot tag is very fun, nails Gibson with a spear and tosses Drake with a backdrop, but it also leads to my least favorite kind of GYV double teams, the "Gibson holds a guy while Drake does a couple thigh slap kicks", but the ending stretch did have some surprises. Primate usually doesn't stand out more than Boar, but I loved him attempting to take out Gibson with a big axe handle off the top to the floor, and how he uses the same axe handle to Drake but does not see the blind tag. This all felt like a Grizzled Young Vets/The Hunt touring house show match, but on a brand that doesn't actually do house shows, these tags stand out. 

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Coffey vs. Dragunov

15. Joe Coffey vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/19/20) 

ER: This has to be my favorite Joe Coffey singles match, and it's got to be because he has a punching bag like Dragunov to pummel. Coffey has a lot of thudding strikes and Dragunov is someone you can just thud and thud and thud. Coffey is a fast bumper too, so when he gets knocked around by Dragunov he really gets knocked around. I like how they tangle, like how they ground each other, and I always like how Ilja fights to his feet and how hard Coffey runs into him to put him back down. Coffey had a couple really big bumps during Ilja's initial onslaught, including a really fast painful tumble over the top off the apron to the floor. He crashes into Ilja with the Glasgow Send Off just as hard as he crashes on all of his misses, and I liked how the Send Off kept coming up throughout the match. Coffey's body shots and chops looked really hard, and Dragunov's body always reads damage really well. I liked how Coffey pivoted things to going after Dragunov's knee with a crazy avalanche style knee breaker, then tenaciously kept on the leg even while Ilja is kicking him in the face from his back. It all built to some really big stuff, some hard lariats, a big delayed German and a huge impact top rope senton from Ilja, and Coffey getting a big superplex when Dragunov gets slowed by his knee. Ilja is the guy who just keeps fighting through any beating, and Coffey started to desperately spam the Send Off, trying to take out Ilja's knee, but kept showing his hand and instead running straight into brutal knees or the ringpost. The finish looked really good, with Ilja flying into Coffey's face with the Torpedo Moscow headbutt just as Coffey was turning to throw his lariat, just a great escalating battle. 

PAS: Dragunov has gone from being a guy I thought was goofy, into one of my favorite wrestlers in the world to watch. I really need to revisit his WXW stuff to see if I would like that, too. I thought this was great. Coffey may be the best puncher in the WWE, and he really unloads with hard body shots and big hooks. I liked him trying to take the starch out of Ilja while Ilja was just throwing his body around back into him. The Russian suplex by Dragunov looked great, and that Gotch lift really should be a set up used more often in wrestling. I also loved how Dragunov used his speed and awareness to stay ahead of the game, as Coffey kept missing violently. He landed hard into the turnbuckles, into Ilja's knee, and finally his head. You have to love a guy willing to throw himself so recklessly into harms way.

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Gallus vs. Burch/Lorcan

54. Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Danny Burch/Oney Lorcan NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/13/20) (Ep. #79)

ER: It's been fun going through all of NXT UK, and I'm not at the point where I'm starting to see the very first matches I saw of them. NXT UK bringing in Lorcan, Ohno, Kendrick, etc. was what originally got me to watch, and this match was my first time seeing Coffey and Wolfgang, who have turned into two of my five favorite NXT UK wrestlers. I watched this a couple years ago, and I loved it even more two years later. 78 episodes have already shown Wolfgang to be easily one of the best in the fed, but this match might be his greatest showcase yet. It's also a real fine showcase for Danny Burch, meaning his two greatest WWE performances just might have been this tag match and an NXT UK tag match vs. The Hunt shown two weeks prior but taped just the day before this tag. I'm not sure what Danny Burch was on that weekend in January, but I'm here for it. 

This was a hot 10 minutes that peaked with a heat section on Lorcan that built to a fiery Burch hot tag, but the whole thing had a nice back and forth energy. The Gallus takeover was so well done, executed in a way I haven't seen: Lorcan was going off battering Coffey and Wolfgang, running attacks on them in opposite corners, until Coffey grabs Lorcan with a rear waistlock after getting nailed, pulls Lorcan backwards into the corner, allowing Wolfgang to come flying across the ring with a high crossbody into Lorcan's upper chest. Wolfgang is great at using his body as a weapon, as he flies out of the ring hitting that crossbody and comes roaring back in with a divebomb elbowdrop to a sitting up Lorcan, and later dives into a seated Lorcan with a senton. 

Wolfgang is great at creating space, a great guy to work with Lorcan. I loved how it looked when Lorcan leapt for a tag and Wolfgang caught him over his shoulder to drag him back over to the Gallus corner. The visual was a nice preview of Wolfgang scooping Burch over his shoulder for the match ending powerslam later on. When Burch does tag in it's awesome, knocking Wolfgang off the apron (with a nasty bump to the floor by Wolfie), muscling Coffey over with a German and holding onto the waistlock, then pulling Coffey into a headbutt. There were some real fine pinfall saves by both teams, those fun pinfall dogpiles that get one guy shoved painfully on top of a pin, and I'm kind of a sucker for when the camera shows the pinfall and leaves an obstructed view of the man about to break up that pin. Wolfgang takes Lorcan out of the match with a wild spear through the ropes and too the floor and gets back in to scoop Burch into that powerslam. A week before this match Wolfgang/Coffey worked one match in the NXT Dusty Tag Classic, and then this match against the future NXT tag champs. This was a killer glimpse at what it would have been like to see Gallus working with other WWE and NXT teams instead of being kept in the UK bubble, and it's a shame we never saw more of it. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Danny Burch! Oney Lorcan! Ridge Holland! Tyson T-Bone! The Hunt!

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. The Hunt (Wild Boar/Primate) NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/30/20) (Ep. #77)

ER: This tag was another one of my introductions to NXT UK. I had never seen Wild Boar before this, and had not in fact ever even heard of him. Wild Boar has been a consistent highlight 77 episodes later and it was because the brand had the good taste to use guys like Oney Lorcan that I even saw him. The match was a cool Danny Burch showcase, one of his greatest performances I've seen. He was a real rugby thug asshole in this, working with disdain against The Hunt, grinding Wild Boar's ears on headlocks and softening up his face with vicious palm strikes that I hardly ever see him use. Muga Burch is something we need to see more often. Wild Boar really threw himself headlong into his own and everyone's offense, hitting hard and getting hit harder. His crash and burns were the best, including a sick missed splash to the floor that kept him away from the finish. Primate made the most out of his hot tag and threw some of several suplexes down the finishing stretch, and really runs over Lorcan with a big lariat. Just like Wild Boar's biggest miss was greater than his greatest hit, Primate also took a great bump into the ringpost. Lorcan nails Primate with a big uppercut and Burch headbutts Boar into next week with a headbutt after Boar had just flattened Lorcan with one of his best ever cannonballs. It was a really great match that felt intense the entire time, and felt bigger than its relatively short 7 minutes. Great, great tag. 

Ridge Holland vs. Tyson T-Bone NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/30/20) (Ep. #77)

ER: This is only 3 minutes, but it's two guys who like to fight, fighting for 3 minutes. That's always going to be entertaining, even if I wish they had twice as much time. There's a big boy lock up, heavy knees thrown to the midsection, and real forearm shivers across the length of the jaw. Holland controlled things for a bit, and he's got plenty of ways to muscle around a tough dude like T-Bone. He worked T-Bone over with crossfaces and knees, ran him over with a lariat, and tossed him with a cool belly to belly. They worked back and forth but in a way that wasn't 50-50, just two guys going all out, destined to crash into an early finish. And, once Holland grabbing T-Bone by the ears and throwing headbutts into Tyson's T-Zone I knew the end was nigh. Just a couple of guys hitting and throwing each other around for three minutes, which is what those with good taste call Pro Wrestling.  

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Devlin vs. Ligero!

Jordan Devlin vs. Ligero NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/23/20) (Ep. #76)

Here's a cool match that acts as a nice showcase for the different things Devlin can do with his moveset. I really like the different ways he approaches matches and opponents. The guys who step out and try something new within a similar framework are always the guys who are going to jump out at me, and this match had several great examples of Devlin trying something once with one result, then trying it again with sometimes a very different result. I love that the match started with him tugging on one of Ligero's horns as a goof and then getting walloped, not even making it out of his track jacket until a couple minutes in. When he does finally get enough space to remove the jacket, after a uranage and moonsault, he stands on Ligero's throat during the jacket removal to be assured that space stays. Devlin always has an answer for Ligero's sillier flourishes (like shoving him back into the ropes on a handstand and then kicking him in the face) but it's also great when he thinks he has Ligero figured out but actually doesn't. Devlin slingshotting himself over the top rope to grab a cutter only for Ligero to simply not lean his neck into the cutter was a great spot, the kind of logic that isn't typically applied to cutters (where guys actively have to stick their neck out) and is so sound that it almost shows how every correct usage of the spot is actually incredibly dumb. It's like the first time you saw someone just let go of the top rope when they're being brought in "the hard way" from the apron. 

Devlin was great at cutting Ligero off, while turning them into moments I'm not sure I've seen before. One that stood out was instead of moonsaulting onto Ligero's outstretched feet - a spot we've seen a lot ever since Mistico/Ultimo Guerrero - Devlin catches Ligero's feet on his landing and blocks Ligero's block. It's rare that "reversal of your reversal" wrestling actually looks good, and Devlin is someone who puts enough care into the spots that they look like *actual* reversed reversals, not just a planned dance. The Devil Inside gets reversed nicely into a Ligero spike DDT, and Devlin sells the DDT perfectly, like a dog who ran into the closed sliding glass door. It doesn't prevent him from eventually going for it later - and hitting it for the win - but I love how Devlin is able to establish that some of his offense needs to be hit at the right moment, and if it's something he tries to rush it will backfire. Devlin's ideas are not complex, but he's one of the best at delivering on those ideas in great matches.  

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Brian Kendrick IS Brian Kendrick

Brian Kendrick vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/23/20) (Ep. #76)

ER: This was one of the earliest NXT UK matches I checked out, not long after it aired. Before this I had sought out a handful of the Ohno appearances and one of Oney Lorcan's UK matches, but once Brian Kendrick worked a few UK dates the brand was officially on my radar. I don't think I'm making up history here, but the Kendrick UK matches were probably the straw that broke me down into starting all of NXT UK from the beginning in the first place. Once I saw the excellent matches Ohno and Kendrick were having with all the NXT UK guys, I got more interested in seeing how they worked with each other, and 76 episodes and three TakeOvers later here we are. Kendrick's WWE return was incredible. He worked like an absolute ace, and he and Ohno reminded me more of Finlay than anyone else on the roster in all of the best ways: ring positioning, creativity, working with a moment, logical attacks, crafting a match around a unique opponent. Every Kendrick match had a few things that expose what other wrestlers *aren't* doing, and Kendrick makes those things obvious. 

Here Kendrick worked over Banks' hand to attempt to distract him enough to hit bigger offense. We get 10 minutes of Kendrick slamming that hand into the ring steps, into the barricade, stomping on it, bending it around the ropes, kneeling on it, using it as an entry point to bigger things. He's not constantly working the hand over that 10 minuets, he just goes back to it enough that we're always thinking about it; and if we're thinking about it, then Banks is definitely thinking about it. Banks' hurt hand informed a lot of what he did and he was always mindful of it, all through the finish. Kendrick dominated once he took out that hand, so Banks offense came in bursts: a fast tope that crashed his whole body over Kendrick, big missile dropkick, and a couple Kiwi Crushers that looked like they dumped Kendrick on the back of his neck (one for a close nearfall, the other to win). 

I love the way Kendrick bumps, and thought his bumps made Banks look strong. They aren't always clean bumps, but once you see a guy who doesn't fill his matches with fast flat back bumps you realize how silly they are. Kendrick falls the way a move's momentum takes him, sometimes tumbling wildly to the floor while reaching out for ropes or ring skirt to stop him, sometimes falling on his side, always looking like the right bump for the move he just took. Kendrick's faceplant bumps are some of the greatest I've seen, whipping his face fast into the mat and holding it like he just loosened two teeth. Oh, and then during the home stretch Kendrick also showed he has the best yakuza kicks in wrestling. What a killer. The Captains Hooks has been my favorite sub in wrestling since Kendrick debuted it, and he had some nasty set-ups for it in this match, including a sick crossface with a great headlock takeover, and I liked how it kept coming back. Banks' win feels even worse in retrospect, for a variety of reasons. Brian Kendrick and Kassius Ohno were the guys who made me go and check out all of the NXT UK, but now I'm just bummed realizing that these matches were basically the last matches I would get to see from these two wrestling gods. 

This match was deservedly placed on our 2020 MOTY List in 2020, but this review is updated to reflect its place within my current NXT UK project. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno vs. Mastiff! The Biggest in the UK Collide!

Kassius Ohno vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 1/12 (Aired 1/16/20) (Ep. #75)

ER: This is quick and to the point, both guys using their weight to win, and Ohno using his arsenal against a uniquely shaped opponent. It's a relatively short match, under 7 minutes, but just watch Ohno's 2019 match against Jack Gallagher to see how special a match he can put together in 7 minutes. Ohno's been crafting variations on the Great 7 Minute Match during his entire NXT UK run, and it's one of the things that's made him the clearcut #1. We've seen a lot of Ohno bullying around smaller NXT UK guys like Ligero and Sid Scala, and it's great seeing how he approaches the heaviest guy on the brand. It's one thing to see him work cravats against Jack Starz, it's another to see how he clamps it around Dave Mastiff's head size neck. Ohno did work his cravat in a few cool ways, and I loved how Mastiff wouldn't go over for a cravat snapmare so Ohno just dropped to his back with his knees up, dropping Mastiff chin first onto them. Ohno keeps going for the cravat, until Mastiff just threw him with a suplex that left Ohno sitting confused on his butt. 

Both got to use their sentons, and it's because big fat guys should all be using sentons. When you get to a certain size you really need to just fall onto your opponent as often as possible. Ohno hits a rolling senton and rolls back off, then rolls another one that sticks even better. Mastiff gets to pay him back with one of his own and used that to build to bigger uses of his body. Ohno had a really cool counter when he saw Mastiff's cannonball coming and slouched further in the corner to deaden the impact and immediately shift into a pin. We don't get nearly enough of guys just trying to minimize damage they know is coming, and that is one of many things that sets Ohno apart from most. Mastiff has a low center of gravity which works against Ohno's leverage-based attacks, but it's also interesting how Ohno didn't dip into his arsenal of kicks or elbows like he did with nearly every other UK opponent. It's like he wanted to win a size battle with the heaviest guy and lost because of the other guy's size. Ohno almost pulled off one last cravat, catching Mastiff up top and locking one in to drop him in who knows what kind of violent way, but Mastiff winds up crushing him with a Finlay roll off the middle buckle. Ohno got punched into the mat with that one, which means we should probably get another match between them so Ohno can throw a ton of kicks. 

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THE NXT UK TOP 50! (Covering Episodes 1 - TakeOver: Blackpool II)

It's the 3rd wrestler ranking for my NXT UK Guide! Here's the Original Top 50 (which covered episodes 1-TakeOver: Blackpool), and then I had the Next Top 50 (which factored in every match from Episode 1 thru Episode 50). Now we have another 25 shows under our belt, and TakeOver Blackpool II felt like a great end cap for the 3rd Top 50. 75 different shows gives us a great sample size to draw from, and I will again state that these rankings are based ONLY on matches from NXT UK. It does not factor in any matches any of these wrestlers had anywhere else, *only* on NXT UK. All wrestlers' placement on the prior 50 will be listed in parentheses after their current ranking (a dash means they were previously unranked). 

1 (1). Kassius Ohno

2 (11). Noam Dar

3 (2). Jordan Devlin

4 (6). Wolfgang

5 (3). Mark Coffey

6 (9). Fabian Aichner

7 (13). Marcel Barthel

8 (14). James Drake

9 (4). WALTER

10 (10). Joe Coffey

11 (7). Dave Mastiff

12 (5). Wild Boar

13 (12). Ligero

14 (22). Zack Gibson

15 (19). Flash Morgan Webster

16 (17). Tyler Bate

17 (20). Mark Andrews

18 (8). Jinny

19 (21). Trent Seven

20 (15). Eddie Dennis

21 (49). Alexander Wolfe

22 (18). Travis Banks

23 (16). Toni Storm

24 (24). Kenny Williams

25 (23). Tyson T-Bone

26 (25). Rhea Ripley

27 (30). Joseph Conners

28 (32). Ashton Smith

29 (26). Isla Dawn

30 (31). Primate

31 (-). Piper Niven

32 (29). Saxon Huxley

33 (-). Ilja Dragunov

34 (47). Kay Lee Ray

35 (27). Jack Gallagher

36 (-). Cesaro

37 (-). Kona Reeves

38 (28). Pete Dunne

40 (-). Oliver Carter

41 (34). Nina Samuels

42 (-). A-Kid

43 (-). Riddick Moss

44 (-). Dorian Mak

45 (-). Sam Stoker

46 (33). Mansoor

47 (-). Lewis Howley

48 (35). Dakota Kai

49 (36). Amir Jordan

50 (48). Xia Brookside

As expected, with a larger sample we've more or less established our Top 20. There is plenty of movement within the Top 20, but 18 of the 20 wrestlers from the last Top 20 are still there. Most of the drops on the list can be chalked up to "wasn't featured as much" and several of the gains are due to someone being more featured. Kassius Ohno retains his #1 status, as I don't think there's anyone else in NXT UK who comes close to having the most consistently high end matches with the biggest variety of opponents. It's that easy. He's obviously the best and he feels like the least contentious #1. What's going to be interesting is how many years after he stopped working NXT UK that I'll be able to justify keeping him in the Top 10. 

The most consistent high end wrestler (other than Ohno) was Noam Dar, who jumped from #11 to #2. Not only was he featured more during this ranking period, but he was responsible for 3 of the best ever NXT UK matches during this period alone. WALTER dropped in the Top 10 due to being the least impressive member of Imperium during the ranking period. It didn't feel right to have him above Barthel and Aichner, so I moved them up a bit and moved him down a bit. James Drake is a definite Top 10 at this point, Grizzled Young Vets had their best run of the series, and I bumped him and Zack Gibson up accordingly. 

The biggest gainer was Alexander Wolfe, a guy who seems destined for the Top 5-10. He was only so low to begin with because he only had one eligible match in the last ranking. Now that he's a regular, he's having standout matches, and will likely be the biggest gainer on the next ranking too. 

Most of the women dropped during this ranking, as NXT UK devoted less time to the women's division than ever. I wanted to keep Jinny in the Top 10, but the overall role of the original NXT UK women changed so much during this period that it made that tough to justify. Overall, Jinny, Rhea Ripley, and Toni Storm were either featured less or moved to other brands, their TV time replaced by Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven (who each bumped up the list accordingly). 

The Bottom 20 is a mix of wrestlers who haven't been on NXT UK since the early episodes, and wrestlers who have only been on NXT UK starting with the latest episodes. The middle of the list is mostly home to wrestlers I like who I wish I could rank higher (Tyson T-Bone still my guy who would be Top 5 if he showed up more often). 

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NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II 1/12/20

Trent Seven vs. Eddie Dennis

ER: Eddie Dennis has a wild set of reptile gear, full boots and toxic slime green snakeskin like he's some kind of early 90s straight to video punk. It's glorious. I like him and Seven as a match up, and there's some explosive stuff. The match starts with a wicked one armed powerbomb by Seven, planting Dennis after catching him charging in. Dennis takes Seven's offense really well, bouncing right off his head on a DDT, getting dumped to the floor with a snap German. But Seven's punishment gets even better with a fast tope and and a snapdragon suplex on the floor. Their pace is really impressive for the level of big moves they're piling up. It's like a weird crazy WCW Power Plant match if they only studied NOAH tapes, with some forearms and big flipping slightly complicated slams, threats of Burning Hammers and Emerald Flowsions, and Seven hitting a right forearm in the corner as hard as Misawa's best. There are a bunch of big complicated slams, and the absolute craziness peaks when Dennis launches Seven with a Razor's Edge to the floor like he was Mike Awesome. Totally crazy spot to lead to a finish, not like any other finish I've seen on NXT UK. This was a cool ass 8 minute gem, really scrappy and portent, filled with big slams and cool bumps. Hot as hell start to a TakeOver. 

Toni Storm vs. Piper Niven vs. Kay Lee Ray

ER: I really hated how they turned this match into a 3 way. I love Toni, but she felt like a real third wheel in the build to this match, and in the match itself. Niven won the title shot, and then the week before TakeOver Storm just demands Niven let her have the match, and then they put her in the match just because she said she should be in the match! It's awful wrestling storytelling, but she's also a kind of necessary distraction in the match, and allowed them to do some big things that would have felt silly to kick out of. I hate 3 ways as a rule, but they actually kept things at a great pace to start. Niven works really well in a 3 way, as one of her issues is insisting on working fast paced singles without always keeping pace. Here she's able to pace things out and is a great wrecking ball. Niven flattens Ray with a tope and misses a fast cannonball into the barricade, but is back to flattening when she breaks up a pin with a senton. The match gets pretty bad the more melodramatic they got, with dumb stuff like Ray finding a chair under the ring and choking Storm while showing tons of light on the choke, or a big dumb face off between Storm and Niven where the camera framed them. The "making movies" thing can be real painful, but when they went back to being dangerous things got good again. Nigel on commentary calls Kay Lee Ray the "Glaswegian Sabu" at one point, which sounds near blasphemous, but when she hits a somersault plancha to the floor and bounces her legs off the barricade and head off the floor, then breaks up a pin by spiking herself with a somersault senton, this could be an Actual Thing. She looked like she under-rotated on a crazy senton, and then took a powerbomb right after. That's nuts. Storm gets to visually beat Niven before Ray superkicks her off, and I guess now that sets up Storm/Niven which feels reductive, since Storm just shoehorned herself in to begin with. There was some really good stuff here though, a lot of it. This was actually my favorite match of either Niven or Ray in NXT UK, and Storm facilitated some of that. 

Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin

ER: This was a big match with a big payoff and big in-match build, a singles match that actually felt mostly worthy of the long TakeOver match lengths. I think Devlin put his time in well, liked how a lot of the offense built, I mainly just didn't like the ways Bate would just pop up to start his own sequences. Now, Devlin works around most of that really well, finding fun ways to set up Bate's comebacks. Devlin kept using the ropes in fun ways, like cutting off a Bate dive and nailing a nice rope flip moonsault, choking him in the ropes, also getting caught in a torture rack-type fireman's carry when he went to slingshot in with a cutter. Devlin, unsurprisingly, was a real asshole here. He mocked Bate and added some extra sauce to holds and strikes, the best being Devlin dragging Bate down into a Romero surfboard, then bending back on Bate's chin until they were staring eye to eye, sicko stuff.  

Devlin is good at working enough actual offense that reversals of that offense actually make sense, and Bate is good at stepping up with someone like that. I do think it veered into move trading, with Bate constantly need to shrug off whatever had just happened to him to hop up and do something impressive, but luckily Devlin is good at facilitating those hop-ups and Bate can break out something impressive. Bate does an airplane spin that starts slow and ugly and looks like it will be a dud, but keeps going and going and by the end I loved how Bate started with a bit of struggle and then kept building speed. By the time he dropped Devlin I was dizzy on my couch, which sounds stupid, but I'm not sure I've seen someone do an airplane spin this fast. Devlin had smart counters to expected Bate offense, dropping him with a cutter to the apron that almost leads to a count out win (with Devlin amusingly kicking him around 8 to keep Bate out longer), and nailing him with a Spanish Fly to counter a Bate charge. Devlin incorporated a lot of learned behavior into reversals, but Bate mostly just took big moves and then decided to do his own moves. This was the match with the somewhat infamous "punch out" spot, which I actually think is "not actually as shitty as it was made out to be". It's kind of hilarious to me that of all spots, Bate and Devlin doing stand and trade got GIF'd and laughed at, because most feds run shows with worse standing exchanges up and down the card. Do Tyler Bate's arms look short and silly when he swings them? Short? Always. Silly? Sometimes. Give me a punch exchange like this every single time over turn taking elbows and forearms. I liked how some of their punches whiffed completely, because it's frankly silly when every strike in an exchange hits perfectly. Bate needed a big finish to firmly put away Devlin, and Devlin is always great at getting spiked on DDTs and flattened by powerbombs, and the crowd was along for every second of Devlin taking it. Perhaps this went too long

Mark Coffey/Wolfgang vs. Fabian Aichner/Marcel Barthel vs. James Drake/Zack Gibson vs. Flash Morgan Webster/Mark Andrews

ER: So, this match was insane. This was easily one of the greatest highspot ladder matches in history, not just WWE history. This was 25 minutes - normally a match length that I would argue is completely unnecessary for *most* matches - but due to the furious pace that this things was worked, I was shocked at how "long" the match was when it was over. This does not feel like a 25 minute match, because from minute one every single person is flying around the ring at breakneck speed taking bumps that surely shaved months/years off their careers/lives, and I don't think that pace even took a slight break until the 18 minute mark. Not only did they work wall to wall crazy spots and dangerous moments, but they did a great job of making every team seem like they could walk away with the belts. I thought they did so well without the ladders, chaining offense together faster and faster, utilizing all 8 guys to give proper rest and generally avoiding guys ignoring damage to get to the next spot in time, that I was kind of dreading this becoming a climbing contest when it settled down. So, they opted to never settle the match down, using the ladders at first in familiar ways, but then doing twists on familiar ladder match spots before exploding with some things I've never seen before. 

It is completely pointless to detail all of the spots that happened in this match, because it would take me twice as long to type everything than it would take you to find and watch the match. One of the cooler aspects was that every team in the match, worked like a team. They all had tandem offense that was not always their typical tandem offense, remixing some spots and adding in ladders to others, and all the teams actually felt like they had individual strategies. They kept the spot set-up time to a minimum, and when they did one gigantic crash spot that had everyone fall like dominoes, prolonging the punishment instead of everybody just landing like shit from one giant tower powerbomb. It's tough to pick a standout, but I really liked Wolfgang a ton. He's the guy doing crazy spots while also shaking his arm out after punches. Yeah, he'll throw big ass Mark Coffey over the top rope onto everyone and then vault out himself to powerslam Drake on the entrance ramp. But, while men lay dying on the battlefield around him, he's still remembering to sell that his fist hurts, and I love it. So Wolfgang was probably my favorite, but this was a team effort. Every guy got at least one big moment (at LEAST). Mark Andrews hit a perfect shooting star press off the ladder onto Coffey, he and Webster hit a wild tandem somersault senton off a very high ladder, and Grizzled Young Vets seemed to be on the end of all the worst punishments, especially poor James Drake. Drake got smashed with ladders and under ladders and under bodies so many times, poor guy spent most of the match kicking his legs and holding his insides. Imperium looked like real beasts, squeezing their double teams into a ladder landscape even better than the others, Barthel tossing smaller guys off the ladders into waiting arms of Aichner so they could be dropped on their heads. 

It's a match with nothing but great spots, but my favorite had to be Imperium punishing Webster. With Webster laid on a ladder, which had been propped up on the ropes, Barthel holds Webster down so Aichner can hit a springboard moonsault, with Barthel rolling OVER Webster at the last minute TOWARDS Aichner's moonsault, so he wouldn't be standing where Aichner's boots were going to whip. I mentioned the car crash spot, and it really was great. They brought 5 or 6 ladders into the ring, everyone was climbing on them and climbing over each other like World War Z, one guy getting knocked to the mat here, Barthel getting knocked all the way to the floor there, Webster amusingly setting up his ladder so it smashes Gibson in between his own ladder, total madness. Wolfgang goes bet mode down the stretch and spears Aichner so hard into a ladder that the ladder breaks into 4 pieces. I don't think I've ever seen a ladder snap right in half during one of these matches, even when someone falls onto one from a great height. I thought I was pretty burnt out on stunt ladder matches, but this one had me from go and was absolutely relentless. 

WALTER vs. Joe Coffey

ER: I thought this was a pretty great 17 minute main event that made the decision to be a 27 minute main event, and treated that extra 10 minutes as if the previous 17 were just a dream. It was admittedly a bit odd how the match seemed to position Joe Coffey as the babyface and WALTER as kind of a generic heel , but I liked the actual ring work a lot. WALTER worked this mostly as a big chopping monster, and Coffey was the smaller "babyface" who kept trying and throwing WALTER with suplexes. WALTER is great at a big man getting knocked off his feet, and I loved how all of Coffey's suplexes looked like he was having trouble lifting WALTER, because he *should* be having a lot of trouble suplexing WALTER. WALTER wasn't hopping into any suplex and it ruled. If Coffey was going to hit a Saito suplex, it was going to be low to the ground with a heavy landing for both, making the suplexes look more like something you'd see in a Hashimoto/Red Bull Army match. There were a couple odd miscues every time WALTER threw a big boot (one that was supposed to hit did not at all; one that was supposed to miss, hit, and was treated as a miss anyway), but mostly it was WALTER throwing heavy chops while Coffey kept deadlifting WALTER on suplexes. WALTER threw hard elbows, cranked Coffey's neck, and worked a nice STF, Coffey hit a boss shoulderblock off the apron (flying at WALTER like a torpedo), fought for a big German suplex, and hit a surprising moonsault. 

When WALTER accidentally hit the ref with a John Woo dropkick (and the ref sold it like a drama queen rolling down a very soft incline), things mostly fell apart. Coffey gets an immediate visual pin off a powerbomb, Alexander Wolfe and Ilja Dragunov run down and get involved, Dragunov knocks Wolfe into Coffey and they basically do a full match restart for the remaining 10. Nothing felt like it mattered down the home stretch, and WALTER - who had just been "pinned" by a powerbomb moments before - now has several winds and the two trade moves until one of those moves wins the match. Every big move (WALTER powerbomb, Coffey avalanche belly to belly) was used as a way for the guy taking the move to transition back to offense, and there were more miscues like Coffey mostly missing a big clothesline and them just repeating the spot right after. After WALTER chokes out Coffey he had to give the biggest acting performance of his life, acting vaguely threatened by Adam Cole. Cole looked tinier than both referees and the camera angles made it looked like a small child ran into the ring after WALTER's win. 

This was a top to bottom great show, with the only bad 10 minutes being the last 10 minutes of the main event. Every other match was a total over-delivery, making this easily one of the best TakeOver events. WALTER/Coffey was probably the weakest overall match, and that was a match I really loved until it went crazy with the booking. Highly recommend this show. 

Best Matches: 

1. Tag Team Ladder Match

2. Jordan Devlin vs. Tyler Bate

3. Eddie Dennis vs. Trent Seven

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfe vs. Dragunov No DQ

Alexander Wolfe vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 11/16/19 (Aired 1/2/20) (Ep. #74)

ER: Dragunov is a sincere goofball, and in a No DQ match there are abundant opportunities to make a ton of faces while acting like you're charging into battle. All of that starts when Ilja pulls a kendo stick out from under the ring and then holds it aloft like the world's dorkiest Beastmaster. He gets in the ring and levels the cane at Wolfe as if anyone in wrestling has felt threatened by a cane over the past 20 years, and that's when we get something I didn't expect: Wolfe disarms Ilja of that cane so quickly and efficiently that he looks like the type of man who says "look I don't want any trouble" moments before leaving 14 moaning broken bodies in his wake. Wolfe made this match cool, and he was a real savage with that cane. He challenges Ilja to pick up the cane and when Ilja foolishly takes the bait Wolfe kicks him right in the face, hits a disgusting cobra clutch neckbreaker using the cane to choke Ilja, throwing the back of Ilja's head into his knee. Wolfe jams the cane into Ilja's face and chokes him with it, and Ilja shows a ton of bruises on his neck and body early. 

Wolfe throws a chair off Ilja's face to knock him off the top rope (and almost hits himself in the face on the rebound) and then  hits a wild death valley driver off the apron. Ilja kicks out of some pretty big stuff, and the match was hurt a bit because you knew there was zero chance that Wolfe was going to beat Dragunov, so the bigger the moves got the more you knew they would wind up with Ilja back in control moments later. But that still gives us great stuff like Ilja piling a ton of chairs into the ring only to get tossed onto them with a sick release German, and then spiked vertically on the chairs with a DDT. Wolfe even gets to torture him with those chairs: slamming him throat first with the edge of the chair and smashing his fingers. Obviously, no matter how many ugly horrified faces Ilja made while holding his mangled hands in front of his eyes, you knew he was going to quickly put this thing to bed, and that's fine. We got another great Alexander Wolfe match, the clearly coolest member of Imperium. 

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